Tritoniopsis elegans - found 6 this morning!

[candlebizlover]

Back on 9/14 I had this mystery bloom:



A couple of weeks later, there were hundreds of tiny white things, too small to identify, all over my glass at night, hid during the day. Most of them were "cleaned off and skimmed or eaten" After a few days I didn't see them anymore.

Two days ago, deep under a rock I saw a "white" thing. It looked like a sponge or a bleached soft coral???? Last night, after I turned off the lights, this crawled out to the middle of the front glass.



I left it in the tank, planning on taking it out for the 10g I have at my work. Get up this morning, turn on the lights and find 6 of them on the glass & rock. Was able to get 5 of them out. So I am certain the bloom above was the Tritoniopsis elegans. The tank has been up for 9 months or so & I haven't added anything new since the bloom.

BTW, all the AIP is gone from my tank, along with a brown Sinularia!
My tank was infested with AIP and I was almost ready to buy all new LR so this was a bonus

[Reefmack]

It's not a bonus unless you want all of your leather corals to disappear!

[candlebizlover]

Originally posted by Reefmack
It's not a bonus unless you want all of your leather corals to disappear!

True that! I pulled all that I could find out of the tank this morning, and plan on checking the tank with a flashlight several times through the night to make sure I get them all.

[greenbean36191]

Tritoniopsis are known to breed successfully in captivity, but those aren't Tritoniopsis eggs. They lay a frilly spiral ribbon. I suspect the blob you saw was from a worm, but Leslie would probably be the one to ask about that. They also don't eat Aiptasia, only soft corals, so the disappearance of your Aiptasia is unrelated.